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Improved Reading Achievement: It's Union Work.American Federation of Teachers, Washington, DC.1999-06-0027p.

AFT Order Department, 555 New Jersey Avenue, N.W.,Washington, DC 20001-2079 (Item 231).Reports - General (140)MF01/PCO2 Plus Postage.*Beginning Reading; Educational Improvement; EducationalResearch; Elementary Education; Elementary School Students;Equal Education; Paraprofessional School Personnel;Preschool Education; Public Education; *Reading Achievement;*Reading Instruction; Reading Skills; Teacher Associations;Teacher Role; Unions; Young Children

This booklet discusses the importance of all students beingguaranteed a carefully crafted and appropriately balanced approach to readinginstruction. Section 1, "Beginning Reading Instruction," discusses variationand inequity in reading instruction and reading skills nationwide. TheAmerican Federation of Teachers (AFT) has made it a priority to ensure highquality professional development in reading instruction skills for allelementary teachers; to raise preparation and licensure standards forelementary teachers; to develop certification standards for elementaryparaprofessionals; to support quality early childhood and preschool programs;and to increase the availability of quality programs and materials in readingand English language arts. The AFT pledges to collaborate with othereducational organizations to work on this issue, disseminate information, andprovide high quality professional development to teachers andparaprofessionals. Section 2, "Questions and Answers," answers questions onthe need for a reading resolution; reading research and phonics; research onreading difficulties among regular-education versus special-educationstudents; a balanced approach to reading instruction; the paraprofessionalrole; diagnostic assessments in kindergarten; and older students' readingneeds. Section 3, "Background Information," presents an essay written by LizMcPike that discusses the importance of reading skills and what is knownabout how best to help children learn to read. Section 4, "BackgroundReading," presents suggested reading materials. (SM)

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Achievemeijt:It's Union Work

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ImprovingReading AcHevement:

It's Union Work

I. AFT Convention Resolution /

II. Questions &Answers / Page 10III. Background Information / Page 14

IV. Background Reading / Page 21

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I.BeginningReading

InstructionAFT Convention Resolution

Adopted July19, 1998

In today's society, the child whodoesn't learn to read does not makeit in life. If children don't learn toread early enough, if they don't learnto read with comprehension, if they

don't read fluently enough to read broadlyand reflectively across all content areas, ifthey don't learn to read effortlessly enoughto render reading pleasurable, their chancesfor a fulfilling lifeby whatever measure:academic success, financial stability, theability to find satisfying work, personalautonomy, self-esteemare practically nil.

In his 1996 State of the Union speech,President Clinton addressed this issue bydeclaring it a national priority to ensurethat every child in America reads indepen-dently by the end of third grade. The AFT

agrees. Not only is this an extraordinarilymodest goal for the richest, most powerfulnation on earth, it is one that must be metbefore any other education goal can be met.

How are we doing as a nation? Accord-ing to the latest international comparisona 1994 study from the International Asso-ciation for the Evaluation of EducationalAchievement (IEA)our students areamong the world's best readers. Never-theless, state, national and internationalassessments, including the IEAs, also indi-cate there is still much work to be done.Because of differences in how various testsmeasure reading skill, estimates of theextent of the problem vary widelyfromthe IEA study that showed 30 percent to40 percent of U.S. fourth graders perform-

5Improving Reading Achievement: It's Union Work / 3

ing below average for developed nations, toa 1994 California assessment that gave fail-ing grades in reading to 59 percent offourth graders. Whatever the correct figurefor overall proficiency, reading researchersreport that, by fourth gradethe first yearin which most states systematically assessstudent achievementabout 20 percent ofU.S. students are already so far behind inreading that they may never catch up.

Poor, immigrant and minority children,some of whose parents may also suffer fromlow literacy levels, represent a dispropor-tionate percentage of those with the lowestreading achievement. Affluence, however,is no guarantee of reading success. In fact,according to the National Assessment ofEducational Progress (NAEP), approxi-mately one-third of all poorly performingfourth graders are the children of college-educated parentsindicating that readingdifficulty is a national problem that extendsacross all socioeconomic strata. We can andmust do better.

The ultimate goal of all reading andEnglish language arts instruction is toallow students to become fluent readers,writers and thinkers, who are able to com-prehend, learn from and add to the collec-tive imagination, experience and wisdom ofall human history. To accomplish this, stu-dents must be challenged to meet high aca-demic standards and be exposed to a richcore curriculum that will give them astrong vocabulary base, broad backgroundknowledge and ample exposure to an inter-

4 / Improving Reading Achievement: It's Union Work

esting array of narrative and expositorytexts. They must learn to read for under-standing and be given a command of therules of spelling, grammar and syntax, sothat they may learn to write with imagina-tion, clarity and precision. And, undergird-ing all of this, at a very early age, they mustbe given the keys to the speech-sound-symbol system of the English language thatwill allow them to decipher written text. Inother words, they must learn the alphabeticcode and how to use it to read and writewords.

Sadly, it is during this very elementalstage of reading that many studentsencounter problems. Fortunately, we knowa good deal about how to help. The firststep is to apply the consistent findings ofhundreds of research studies, conductedover the past several decades in suchdiverse fields as neuroscience, psychology,

linguistics, cognitive science and educationthat have helped us understand how chil-dren learn to read and what we must do toimprove their early reading instruction.

Researchers have identified severalbasic, interconnected subskills that all chil-dren must master to become proficientreaders. Young students must developphonemic awarenessthe recognition thatall words are made up of separate sounds,or phonemes. They must learn phonicsthe ability to link these sounds to the spe-cific letters or combinations of letters thatare used to represent them in written lan-guage. And the association between lettersand sounds must become virtually auto-matic, so that students learn to decodewords almost instantly and are able to con-centrate on the meaning of written text.

Research suggests that 50 percent to 60percent of students are able to master thefirst two subskills with relative easealthough systematic, explicit instruction inphonemic awareness and phonics can makethem even better readers. But without suchinstruction, the remaining 40 percent to 50percentespecially those without a lan-guage-rich home environment or with mildto severe reading disabilitiesmay experi-ence very real problems that, unlessresolved by the end of third grade, are like-ly to place them at a permanent education-al disadvantage.

This is not to say that the ability todecode words is sufficient to make everychild a proficient readerjust that it is a

necessary precondition. In this sense, thenation's recurring reading wars, pittingphonics-based instruction against litera-ture-based instruction, represent a falsedichotomy. Children need a balance ofboth. But the way in which this balance isstruckin particular, the sequence andmethods by which each is deliverediscritical. With very early exposure to sys-tematic, explicit instruction in phonemicawareness, decoding and reading compre-hension skills, say researchers, virtuallyevery childexcept perhaps those with themost severe reading and cognitive disabili-tiescan be taught to read. In fact, it isestimated that 85 percent to 90 percent ofstudents who are poor readersincludingmany now classified as learning disabledcould increase their reading skill to averagelevels with this type of intensive, earlyinstruction delivered by skilled teachers.Research also shows that the use of decod-able textbooks and materials containinga high proportion of new words that adhereto phonetic principles students have alreadybeen taughtcan help young students atthe pre-primer and primer levels to masterdecoding skills and increase speed and flu-ency. For the vast majority of students,much of this can be accomplished beforethe end of first grade, enabling them totackle the vast array of interesting and chal-lenging children's literature that can helpexpand vocabulary and increase back-ground knowledge and comprehension.

It is for these reasons that the AFT

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.readingresearchersreport that, byfourthgradethefirst year inwhich moststatessystematicallyassess studentachieve-mentabout20 percent ofU.S. studentsare already sofar behind inreading thatthey maynever catchup.

Improving Reading Achievement: It's Union Work / 5

believes that all students must be guaran-teed a carefully crafted and appropriatelybalanced approach to the teaching of read-ing. This must include early, systematicand explicit instruction in the necessarysubskillsincluding phonemic awarenessand phonicsas well as an early emphasison listening skills, language development,conceptual and vocabulary development,storytelling and writing, a deep explorationof the treasure chest of rich and challeng-ing children's literature, and literacy-relatedactivities that can help enhance children'slove of books and of learning. Standing inthe way of this goal are two great obstacles:First, most instructional staff in elementaryschools have never been provided with suf-ficient preparation in how to teach readingin a way that reflects what is now prepon-derant research evidence. And second, fewmaterials and programs, based on thisresearch, have been developed or field test-ed for effectiveness.

Therefore, the AFT and its state andlocal affiliates will make it a priority to:(1) ensure that all elementary school teach-ers are provided with high-quality profes-sional development in the requisite skillsand knowledge of how to teach beginningreadingand ensure that all classroomparaprofessionals in these schools receivehigh-quality professional development inhow to reinforce reading instruction andhelp tutor struggling students; (2) raise thepreparation and licensure standards for ele-mentary school teachers to include a core


curriculum in the teaching of reading thatreflects the best research evidence and callsfor extensive time-in-field experiences; (3)develop certification standards for elemen-tary school classroom paraprofessionalsthat include an appropriate course of pre-and inservice training in research-basedreading instruction and tutorial strategies;(4) support the kind of quality early child-hood and preschool programs and servicesthat increase the chances of reading suc-cess; and (5) increase the availability ofprograms and materials in reading andEnglish language arts that have a trackrecord of effectiveness. Specifically, we willworkthrough public advocacy, legislativeactivities, contract negotiations, publica-tions, professional development programsand other meansto:

Urge states and the federal governmentto fully fund early childhood programs,such as prenatal health care, child nutri-tion, the Home Instructional Programfor Preschool Youngsters (HIPPY), andothers that work with high-poverty fami-lies to help assure children's physical andcognitive health, including informationabout the critical importance of dailyreading to children, from infancy on, andother research-based strategies that canbe used at home to ensure that all stu-dents are reading-ready when they enterfirst grade.

Urge the federal government, states ands-chool districts to provide the quality

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preschool and all-day kindergarten pro-grams that can foster early literacy bydeveloping children's language, vocabu-lary and conceptual skills, as well as help-ing to familiarize all students with books,the nature of print, the letters of thealphabet and their sounds, and the kindsof stories, information and ideas that textcan offer. We also urge schools and dis-tricts to institute school-entry screeningprograms that can identify hearing,speech, language, vision and other prob-lems that may impede student learning.

Urge states and districts to fimd and stafffor lower class sizes in the primary gradesin order to provide optimum conditionsfor early reading success.

Urge all school districts and AFT localsto make it a high priority to ensure thatall K-2 teachers and classroom parapro-fessionals, at a minimum, are providedwith professional development thatreflects the research base in beginningreading. This should be followed, asquickly as possible, by the implementa-tion of a research-based professionaldevelopment program in reading andreading comprehension instruction for allinstructional staff who work with studentpopulations who are at high risk of read-ing failure, all other special educationand remedial teachers, and ultimately, allinstructional staff in every elementaryschool.

Urge all teacher education programs and

the organizations that represent them,such as the American Association ofColleges of Teacher Education, as well asaccreditation agencies, such as theNational Council for the Accreditationof Teacher Education, to support astronger core curriculum in teacherpreparation for reading instruction. Thisshould include coursework on: the intri-cacies of the spe'ech-sound-symbol sys-tem of the English language and thehuge body of research about how it isbest taught; how to advance students'conceptual, vocabulary and languagedevelopment; how to tap students' priorknowledge and teach reading compre-hension skills and strategies; how to

In today'ssociety, thechild whodoesn't learn toread does notmake it in life.


teach English language arts, includingwriting, grammar and syntax; how toadapt teaching methods to accommodatethe needs of linguistic minority students;and how to enhance reading instructionand build background knowledgethrough the use of children's literatureand to practice these skills and under-standings in clinical teaching settings.

Urge standards-setting bodies, such asthe Interstate New Teacher Assessmentand Support Consortium, and statelicensing authorities to raise licensurerequirements for elementary teachers toinclude a clear definition of what teach-ers should know and be able to do withregard to the teaching of reading; a stipu-lation of required coursework in readinginstruction that incorporates the researchbase on effective instructional practices;and provisions for a well-supervisedinduction period to ensure that theseinstructional practices have been mas-tered.

Urge school districts to enforce federalregulations, such as Title I, regardingentry-level employment standards forclassroom paraprofessionals, and urgestates and districts to develop certifica-tion standards for classroom paraprofes-sionals, especially those who work withbeginning and struggling readers, thatclearly define roles and responsibilities,basic skills and an appropriate course ofpre- and in-service training in research-


based instructional and tutorial strate-gies.

Urge the federal government to helpfund the development of research-basedmaterials to help improve readinginstruction; ensure that these materialsare field tested, using experimental andcontrol groups, to determine how wellthey work to raise students' readingachievement; disseminate the resultingeffectiveness and implementation data toschools and districts; and fund scale-upefforts for the most effective programsand materials.

Urge textbook publishers and programdevelopers to revise existing materialsand to develop new materials for earlyreading instruction that reflect the

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research base and to conduct field testson a routine basis, which can provideschools and districts with quantitativeand qualitative evidence of effectiveness.Such materials should guide instructionin phonemic awareness, phonics, spellingand grammar, provide decodable text atthe pre-primer and primer levels, andexpose students to a rich and challengingarray of children's literature that can holdstudents' interest, help build vocabularyand background knowledge and increasecomprehension. These programs andmaterials should also include aligned in-class assessments that are easy for teach-ers to administer on a periodic basis andthat can be used to help monitor studentprogress, inform instruction, adjust stu-dent groupings and diagnose problemsearly.

Urge school boards and state and districtcurriculum authorities to approve, forbroad adoption, only those materials forbeginning reading instruction that aredesigned to reflect the research base andthat have clearly been shown to be effec-tive in helping to raise student achieve-ment levels, using valid, scientific fieldtests, and to institute a method for ongo-ing evaluation of the efficacy of adoptedreading materials.

Urge schools and districts to employperiodic research-based diagnostic assess-ments, beginning in kindergarten, thatcan help spot reading problems early.

Results of these assessments should beused by districts to develop and imple-ment intervention systems and by statesand districts to target sufficient funds tohelp address any reading difficultiesbefore students fall too far behind.

Urge states and districts to fund, staffand fully stock a library in every schooland make sure that all school libraries areaccessible and convenient for studentsand their families.

In addition, the AFT pledges to:

Work with other educational organiza-tions, such as the Learning FirstAlliance, to identify effective research-based reading programs and to persuadeschool boards and state and local legisla-tive bodies to dedicate adequate resourcesto the adoption and full implementationof such programs in every public elemen-tary school.

Continue to disseminate information onreading research and effective instruc-tional practice to AFT members and thegeneral public through local and nationalpublications.

Continue to use the AFT EducationalResearch and Dissemination (ER&D)program to provide high-quality profes-sional development to teachers and para-professionals in reading research andeffective instructional practices in read-ing.

.the nation'srecurringreading wars,pittingphonics-basedinstructionagainstliterature-basedinstruction,represent afalsedichotomy.Children needa balance ofboth. But theway in whichthis balance isstruckin particular,the sequenceand methodsby which eachis deliveredis critical.


Questions &Ansvven

Why a reading resolution?Reading is a prerequisite for all other learn-ing. Reading is also a skill that a significantpercentage of U.S. studentsincludingmany with college-educated parentshavedifficulty learning. Reading problems areeven more widespread among children ofthe poor, the uneducated, non-Englishspeakers, minorities, and inner-citydwellers. The good news is that there isnow a large body of researchand a con-sensus among the majority of researchers

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and educatorsabout what we must do tohelp these students succeed. The momentis ripe to take advantage of this consensus,to get good materials into the hands ofteachers and paraprofessionals, and to pro-vide them with the professional develop-ment they need to improve the readingachievement of their students.

Is this attention to readingresearch mat, anotherpendulum swing, this timetoward phonici?No, especially since there is compellingresearch to argue against the use of isolatedphonics in reading instruction, just as thatresearch argues against the use of a lan-guage-experience-only approach. There isstrong evidence to suggest that most begin-ning readers need early, systematic, andexplicit instruction in phonemic awarenessand phonics. But studies also show thatbeginning readers need early exposure tothe richness of children's literature, to sto-rytelling, to writing and listening skills, tothe expository texts that can serve as

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important sources of background knowl-edge and vocabulary, and to lessons provid-ing conceptual development and readingcomprehension. In other words, the "read-ing wars"pitting phonics against wholelanguagerepresent a false dichotomy.Overwhelmingly, the research shows thatchildren need a careful balance of both.

Isn't there research to supportall sides on how to teachreading?In some respects, yes. But it is the qualityand quantity of researchnot which sidelikes the resultsthat merits attention.Over the past few years, results have beenreleased from a number of carefullydesigned and conducted national and inter-national studies from many diverse fieldssuch as neuroscience, psychology, linguis-tics, cognitive science, and educationthatreinforce one another as to how childrenlearn to read and what we must do toimprove their early reading instruction.

Although there are some who willaccept no compromise, these strong find-ings have helped most experts arrive at aconsensus. The full breadth of research onearly reading instruction was recentlyreviewed in Preventing Reading Difficultiesin Young Children, a report by a 17-memberpanel of eminent scholars assembled by theNational Research Council of the NationalAcademy of Sciences. This group, whichstudied the range of reading research forover two years, concluded by calling for abalanced approach to the teaching of read-

ing. This includes the use of systematic,explicit phonics, daily exposure to litera-ture, and attention to comprehensioninother words, the kind of balance that theAFT calls for. Many other education orga-nizations also recognize this consensus.That's why the AFTalong with theNEA, PTA and other major administra-tors, school board.and superintendentorganizations, who are all members of theLearning First Alliancerecently endorseda position paper on beginning reading thatis also in accord with the AFT resolution.

Has there been enough researchon regular education studentsand reading difficulties or has itall come from special educationresearch?A number of recent, significant findings onbeginning readingbut by no means allwere from reading disability studies fundedby the National Institute of Child Healthand Human Development (NICHD) ofthe National Institutes of Health. But tofind out about reading disabilitieswhichstudents develop them and whymany ofthese studies were actually conducted on arandomly selected general population ofchildren. Thus, over 33 years, NICHDstudies involved 34,501 children andadults, including 21,860 skilled readers and12,641 impaired readers. In other words,these studies represent a source of impor-tant information about reading instructionfor regular education as well as special edu-cation students.

1 3 Improving Reading Achievement: It's Union Work / 11

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So is chieving 6 "NS 11 cad'approach°" the point?Yes, as long as we understand what anappropriate balance means. It would be ashame if, after we had learned so much andreached a hard-won consensus, "balance"became just another buzzword to describethe status quo. This resolution, as well asadditional materials (see BackgroundReading on page 21), provides a lot ofdetail to ensure that AFT members arefamiliar with the broad outlines of researchand the consensus on how to achieve a bal-ance that will result in reading gains.

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i1111 the steps c Beall fli tiskresointion diminish p ssionaiautonomy?No. In fact, they have the potential to helpbuild a research-based profession, with afrill toolbox of proven teaching strategiesand instructional materials. Research cangive us better tools to choose from, as wellas a better understanding of which tools touse when and with which students. But, aswith medicine and most other research-based professionsor any field thatrequires a massive body of professionalskills and knowledgeit will always be upto the judgment and skill of the individual

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practitioner to diagnose problems accurate-ly, to choose the most appropriate tools inlight of that diagnosis, and then to usethose tools effectively. But, also as in otherresearch-based professions, it will beincumbent upon the practitioners to prac-tice their profession in a way that is respon-sibly informed by the best available evi-dence of what works.

What is the role ofparaprofessionals in helpingchildren to read?Paraprofessionals play a significant role insupporting teachers' work in the classroom.Programs like Success for All have shownthat, when properly trained, paraprofes-sionals have been extremely effective whenengaged in meaningful roles that supportthe educational programs designed, led,and evaluated by classroom teachers.

Is it appropriate to usediagnostic assessmentsbeginning in kindergarten?It's important to be very careful about howtests are used with young children. Webelieve, however, that school systemsshould start employing diagnostic assess-ments on a routine and appropriate basis,beginning when students enter kinder-garten or first grade. According to research,intensive intervention programs can helpthe vast majority of struggling readersachieve reading proficiency if problems arecaught early enough. If intervention isdelayed until age 9, howeverthe approxi-

mate age that most states begin to testreading proficiencyroughly 75 percent ofstruggling students will experience readingdifficulties through high school. It's notthat older students can't be taught to read;it's just that the time and expense to helpthem catch up to their peers is so enormousthat few school systems help all who needit.

Why talk about the earlygrades only? Many olderstudents need help urgently.This is a case of "an ounce of prevention isworth a pound of cure." Many older stu-dents experience reading difficulty becausethey didn't receive the kind of instructionthat they needed early enough. Therefore,by helping to improve reading instructionfor very young students, the reforms calledfor in this resolution could also help pre-vent future reading problems for manyolder students. Also, while the level, inten-sity, and subject matter of the materialsmay differ, the strategies for teaching oldernonreaders are basically the same as thosediscussed in this resolution. Currently,there are only a few age-appropriate,school-based programs for older studentswith enough research to show they areeffective. A lot of program developmentand evaluation is being conducted in thisarea, however, and we are hopeful that sev-eral more appropriate strategies for strug-gling, older students will soon be identi-fied.

. .approxi-matelyone-third ofall poorlyperformingfourth gradersare thechildren ofcollege-educatedparentsindicating thatreading&faculty is anationalproblem thatextends acrossall

socioeconomicstrata.

1 5 Improving Reading Achievement: It's Union Work / 13

BackgroundInformation

This essay served as the introduction to aseries of three articles on learning to read thatappeared in the AFT journal, AmericanEducator, in summer 1995. It was written byLiz McPike, editor of the magazine.

This we can say with certainty:If a child in a modern societylike ours does not learn toread, he doesn't make it in life.If he doesn't learn to read well

enough to comprehend what he is reading,if he doesn't learn to read effortlesslyenough to render reading pleasurable, if hedoesn't learn to read fluently enough toread broadly and reflectively across all thecontent areas, his chances for a fulfillinglife, by whatever measureacademic suc-cess, financial success, the ability to find


interesting work, personal autonomy, self-esteemare practically nil.

Because of the central role that readingability plays in children's lives, it is in thisarea, above all others, that the knowledgebase for the practice of teaching must bemost closely studied and adhered to. Thereis no room for either confusion or dogma-tism. Too much is at stake.

Keith Stanovich, one of the world'sleading reading researchers and twice therecipient of the International ReadingAssociation's Albert J. Harris award, hasapplied the concept of the "Mattheweffect" to describe the dramatically differ-ent trajectories followed by those childrenwho get off to a good start in reading andthose who don't:

"The term Matthew effects derives from the

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Gospel according to Matthew: Tor unto every onethat hath shall be given, and he shall have abun-dance; but from him that hath not shall be takenaway even that which he hath' (X0(IT:29).

"...Put simply, the story goes something likethis: Children who begin school with little phono-logical awareness have trouble acquiring alphabeticcoding skill and thus have difficulty recognizingwords. Reading for meaning is greatly hinderedwhen children are having too much trouble withword recognition. When word recognition processesdemand too much cognitive capacity, fewer cogni-tive resources are left to allocate to higher-levelprocesses of text integration and comprehension.Trying to read without the cognitive resources toallocate to understanding the meaning of the text isnot a rewarding experience. Such unrewarding earlyreading experiences lead to less involvement inreading-related activities. Lack of exposure andpractice on the part of the less-skilled reader furtherdelays the development of automaticity and speed atthe word recognition level. Thus reading for mean-ing is hindered, unrewarding reading experiencesmultiply, practice is avoided or merely toleratedwithout real cognitive involvement, and the nega-tive spiral of cumulative disadvantage continues.Troublesome emotional side effects begin to beassociated with school experiences, and thesebecome a further hindrance to school achievement.

"Conversely, children who quickly developdecoding processes find reading enjoyable becausethey can concentrate on the meaning of the text.They read more in school and, of equal importance,reading becomes a self-chosen activity for them.The additional exposure and practice they get fur-ther develops their reading abilities....(R)eadingdevelops syntactic knowledge, facilitates vocabularygrowth, and broadens the general knowledge base.This facilitates the reading of more difficult andinteresting texts...."

How many American children arecaught in the downward spiral that

Stanovich describes? No one has exact fig-ures, but the accumulating evidencebothquantitative and anecdotalis indeed trou-bling, and an increasing number of educa-tors are expressing deep concern. Perhapswe need not spend valuable time calculat-ing the precise number of children affectedwhen we know we can say with confidencethat we are talking about millions.

Recent evidence of reading difficultycomes from studies by the NationalAssessment of Educational Progress(NAEP). In April 1995, NAEP announcedthe latest reading scores for students acrossthe country. Students in three grades inthirty-nine states were tested. Overall,fewer than a third of them were proficientin reading, that is, able to handle challeng-ing texts competently, and only a very few(2 percent to 5 percent depending on thegrade) were reading at advanced levels.

While middle-class children and chil-dren with normal cognitive developmenthave by no means been spared from thegrowing incidence of reading problems, thepedagogical clock is ticking most relent-lessly for youngsters from low-income anddisadvantaged householdsthose who donot come to school with thousands ofhours of exposure to print and conversationand word play and informal teaching thatoccurs in most middle-class households:being read to, learning rhymes and songsand playing word-sound games, watchingand helping as the grocery list is drawn upand checked off, manipulating the magnet-

17 Improving Reading Achievement: It's Union Work / 15

ic letters on the refrigerator, and so on. Incontrast to these fortunate ones, as MarilynAdams, the author of Beginning To Read:Thinking and Learning about Print, haswritten, there are children who "have bare-ly even seen a book before entering school."

Also at serious risk, and again the num-bers are high, are children whose cognitivearchitecturefor a wide variety of rea-sonsmakes learning to read and writemore difficult.

For these two groups of children in par-ticular, as Adams has so compellinglyputit, "we have not a classroom moment tovvaste."

hat do we know abouthow best to help chil-dren learn to read?

1. Many elementsof the Whole Lang-

uage approach have brought new life to thereading and writing experience into theclassrooms where students and teachers areworking creatively together to open thedoor to full literacy. The early emphasis onwriting; the deeper drawing from the richtreasure chest of good children's literature;the freedom for teachers to go beyondtightly regimented and constrained pro-grams and to design a wide range of litera-cy events and activities; the reCognitionthat prolonged periods of abstracted phon-ics drill, isolated from meaningful text, isnot the way to teach reading; the under-standing that learning depends in consider-


able degree upon capturing a child's inter-est and engaging his active participation, ofsetting before him a vision of something hevery much wants to be part of: All of thesehave been invaluable contributions and amuch-needed counterbalance to what inmany cases was a dry and narrow approachto literacy development.

2. Whole Language means differentthings to different people, and for someeducators it has meant combining the typesof insights and activities described abovewith the direct and systematic teaching ofall that is involved in mastering the alpha-betic code. But many leaders and propo-nents of the Whole Language approachhave so downgraded the importance ofcode-oriented instruction as to render itbut an incidental part of a beginning read-ing program, if that. Direct instruction andsystematic instruction are frowned upon, asis attention to individual words and the let-ter/sound sub-units of which they are com-posed. Children are advised to rely on con-text to figure out unfamiliar words. "Don'tsound it out," warns The Whole LanguageTeachers Newsletter. But contextual clues arenotoriously unreliable; they can't competewith skilled decoding. And the "wait-for-the-child-to-ask" orientation to decodinginstruction doesn't do much for childrenwho don't understand what to ask.

To the extent that Whole Languageproponents equate learning to read withlearning to talk, that is, both "natural"processes to which we are predisposed and

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that require little more than a rich immer-sion in order to blossom, they are wrong.To the extent that they minimize the roleof skilled decoding in reading comprehen-sion, they are also wrong. And the peda-gogical practices that flow from these faultypremises are wrong; indeed for many chil-dren they are a disaster. All children canbenefit from and many children requiresystematic direct instruction in the ele-ments of the alphabetic code. Each child isdifferent, of course, and some need moreextensive instruction in decoding skillsthan others. But as Keith Stanovich has sosuccinctly put it:

"That direct instruction in alphabetic codingfacilitates early reading instruction is one of themost well-established conclusions in all of behav-ioral science....Conversely, the idea that learning toread is just like learning to speak is accepted by no

responsible linguist, psychologist, or cognitive sci-entist in the research community."

Rather than being irrelevant or inciden-tal to text comprehension, skilled decoding,it turns out, is central. Again, MarilynAdams:

"...[I]t has been proven beyond any shade ofdoubt that skillful readers process virtually each andevery word and letter of text as they read. This isextremely counter-intuitive. For sure, skillful readersneither look nor feel as if that's what they do. Butthat's because they do it so quickly and effortlessly.Almost automatically, with almost no consciousattention whatsoever, skillful readers recognizewords by drawing on deep and ready knowledge ofspellings and their connections to speech and mean-ing.

In fact, the automaticity with which skillfulreaders recognize words is the key to the whole sys-tem....The reader's attention can be focused on themeaning and message of a text only to the extent

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that it's free from fussing with the words and let-ters."

A Whole Language approach that doesnot incorporate sufficient attention todecoding skills leaves in its wake countlessnumbers of youngsters who, in the wordsof one teacher, are surrounded by "beautifulpieces of literature that [they] can't read."As Joanna Williams of Teachers College,Columbia University, has observed:"Today, without strong direct systematicdecoding instruction in regular first-gradeclassrooms, more and more children arebeing shunted into remedial classes, andeven special education."

Also left in the wake are many teacherswho can see clearly that some of their stu-dents are not doing well in a purist WholeLanguage environment but who are undertremendous pressure from their district orstate to minimize the teaching of thealphabetic code. In an article in EducationWeek, one veteran teacher describes theenvironment that followed California's1987 adoption of a "literature-based frame-work for teaching language arts" as one inwhich "officials in some elementary schoolsseized phonics books and spellers to ensurethat teachers were not ignoring the new[Whole Language] instructional materi-als."

Pressures are also coming from thesocial dynamics within the profession. Wehave heard numerous stories from teacherswho, labeled as "old-fashioned" orworseyet"resistant to change," have had to


"hide their phonics books" or close theirdoors in order to "sneak in some phonics."

3. Systematic attention to the alpha-betic code does not mean a return to thedreariness that characterized so much ofthe old phonics. Thanks to the dedicatedwork of many teachers and readingresearchers, we now know a lot more thanwe used to about what constitute the criti-cal elements of decoding and how to goabout teaching them.

The days of the "drill and more drill"approach to phonics are over, as theyshould be, and no reasonable educator issuggesting a return to them. But neither doreasonable educators suggest that studentsdo not need a reasonable amount of well-designed practice.

4. A carefully crafted, balancedapproach to the teaching of readingrequires considerable sophistication on thepart of teachers. Joanna Williams describesthe rigorous demands of the job:

"Teachers are often exhorted to be eclectic, asindeed they should be. Teaching children to readrequires much knowledge and many skills.Moreover, children do not all respond equally wellto the same teaching techniques. A teacher must beready and able to switch strategies easily. A teachermust be equipped to jump in wherever required andprovide appropriate feedback on the spot, whether itbe with phonics information, an analogy, or a point-ed question. (Of course, he or she must also knowwhen not to jump in but rather let the child find hisown way.) Teachers need good training to operateflexibly with multiple strategies and activities. Theyalso need substantial knowledge about the way inwhich language is structured, particularly with

respect to its orthographic and phonological fea-tures. They must be able to teach their studentsabout phonemes and how phonemes are representedin writing, and about morphemes (the smallestmeaningful units in words) and their spelling pat-terns...."

But teachers are not receiving this kindof training. The amount of course work inthe structure of spoken and written lan-guage required by teacher preparation pro-grams and state certification standards arewoefully inadequate for the demands ofclassroom life, particularly classrooms withlow-readiness children and a diverse rangeof learners. Louisa Cook Moats, director ofTeacher Training at the Greenwood Insti-tute in Putney, Vermont, conducted a sur-vey of experienced teachers to assess theirknowledge of the structure of spoken andwritten language. Moats found "pervasiveconceptual weaknesses in the very skillsthat are needed for direct, language-focused reading instruction, such as theability to count phonemes and to identifyphonics relationships....Typically, about 10percent to 20 percent...could consistentlyidentify consonant blends in writtenwords....Less than half of those testedcould identify the reduced vowel schwaconsistently. Only 30 percent could explainwhen ck was used in spelling."

Moats points out that teachers cannotbe expected to know what they have notbeen taught, and she urges reform ofteacher preparation programs and certifica-tion requirements. "At present, motivatedteachers are often left to obtain specific

skills in teaching phonology, phonetics,orthography, and other language skills ontheir own by seeking out workshops or spe-cialized instructional manuals."

Moats also notes the terrible toll thistakes on teachers. The lack of a firm graspof the knowledge they need to teach begin-ning readersespecially hard-to-reach,hard-to-teach childrenleaves many dedi-cated teachers deeply frustrated. Worriedthat they are not doing a good job, theirconfidence shaken, many begin to rethinktheir career choice. Undoubtedly, this is asignificant factor in the widely documentedhigh attrition rate of new teachers.

While there are a number of reasonsthat help explain why teachers are notbeing offered the training they need, an

The ultimategoal of allreading andEnglishlanguage artsinstruction isto allowstudents tobecome fluentreaders,writers andthinkers, whoare able tocomprehend,learn from andadd to thecollectiveim.agination,experience andwisdom of allhumanhistory.

21 Improving Reading Achievement: It's Union Work / 19

article in The Atlantic Monthly may throwsome light on the problem: "...in 1987 asurvey of forty-three texts used to trainteachers of reading found that none advo-cated systematic phonics instructionandonly nine even mentioned that there was adebate on the issue." Programs that do notbelieve in the value of systematic phonicsare unlikely to provide teachers with thenecessary knowledge base in the structureof language. As Moats concludes, "...lan-guage mastery is as essential for the literacyteacher as anatomy is for the physician. Itis our obligation to enable teachers toacquire it."

5. It is certainly motive enough toknow that the lives of millions of childrendepend on our ability to help them learn toread well. But there may be yet more atstake here. As increasing numbers of par-ents witness their second and third gradersstruggling through basic reading materialsand lacking command of foundationalspelling concepts and spelling-sound rela-tionships, they come to feel that our pubicschools are failing in their most basic mis-sion. According to a report issued in thesummer of 1994 by the Public AgendaFoundation, "First Things First: WhatAmericans Expect from the PublicSchools," 60 percent of Americans harbordeep concerns that there is "not enoughemphasis on the basics, such as reading,writing, and math." Higher standards andmore challenging school work are stronglyendorsed by the public, but they don't


understand how "critical thinking" and"higher-order" skills are possible withoutmastery of certain basics:

"In focus groups for this study and other PublicAgenda education projects, people express a sense offrustration and even bewilderment at the inability ofthe public schools to make mastery of the basicscommon-place among the nation's children."

Keith Stanovich describes how parents'dissatisfaction with their children's progressin reading is fueling the movement towardprivatizing education in Canada:

"Parents with children who have trouble in earlyreading and who have not been given instruction inalphabetic coding will add fuel to the movementtoward privatized education in North America.'Parents Question Results of State-Run SchoolSystem' is an increasingly frequent newspaper head-line in Canadian provinces (e.g., Ontario) wherephonics instruction is neglected or de-emphasized.The January 11, 1993, cover of Maclean's, Canada'sweekly newsmagazine, was titled 'What's Wrong atSchool?' and featured numerous reports of parentsseeking private education for children struggling inreading due to a lack of emphasis on alphabeticcoding in school curricula....It is reported thatCanada's private school enrollment jumped 15 per-cent in the single year of 1992."

Of course, private schools are just aslikelyand the elite ones probably morelikelyto have embraced a one-sidedWhole Language approach. But parentsare generally not well informed about thespecifics of different instructional pro-grams. They only know that their child isnot doing well in his current setting, andthey begin to look elsewhere.

''2

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IV.Background Reading

General Materials AFT MaterialsAdams, Marilyn Jager, et al. PhonemicAwareness in Young Children: A ClassroomCurriculum. Paul H. Brookes Pub. Co.,(Oct. 1997).

Adams, Marilyn Jager. Beginning To Read:Thinking and Learning about Print.Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. (1990).

California State Department of Education.Read All About It. (1999).

Hall, Susan A., and Moats, Louisa.Straight Talk about Reading: How ParentsCan Make a Difference during the EarlyYears. Contemporary Books. (Oct. 1998).

National Research Council. Starting OutRight: A Guide To Promoting Children'sReading Success. National Academy Press.(1999).

Snow, Catherine E.; Burns, M. Susan; andGriffen, Peg, editors. The Prevention ofReading Difficulties in Young Children.Washington, DC: National Academy ofSciences. (1998).

Educational Research andDissemination (ER&D) ProgramThe American Federation of Teachers'Educational Research and Dissemination(ER&D) program is a union-sponsored,research-based professional developmentprogram. It was created by the AFTthrough collaboration between practition-ers and researchers to encourage classroomeducators to improve their practice andtheir students' achievement by becomingusers of research. It is based on a training-of-trainers model. In a training-of-trainersmodel, individuals participate in activitiesthat prepare them to train others, who, inturn, train still others in a pyramidingeffect.

As a professional development program,the ER&D process is very different fromtraditional inservice, because it affords K-12 and postsecondary classroom educatorsthe opportunity to gain access to researchon teaching and learning in a form thatgives them the ability to apply those find-ings effectively. ER&D offers three coursesthat directly relate to reading:


Beginning Reading Instruction: Thiscourse is designed to give participants theknowledge and skills necessary to provideall children with the strong foundation theymust have to become successful readers. Itwill focus on strategies to teach beginningreading, with particular emphasis on help-ing students develop phonemic awareness,an understanding of the print-to-speechcode, fluency, and comprehension. It isintended primarily for teachers ofKindergartengrade 2, but it is also appro-priate for teachers of upper elementarygrades, whose students are still having dif-ficulty with word recognition.

Reading Comprehension Instruction:This course focuses on research-basedexemplary practices in the teaching ofreading comprehension. Participantsexplore the nature of narrative and exposi-tory text and how students' knowledge ofthis can improve comprehension.Participants also learn instructional strate-gies to help students comprehend, learnfrom, and appreciate both forms of text.The course is intended primarily for ele-mentary grade teachers, but is also appro-priate for teachers of other grades whosestudents are still having difficulty withreading comprehension in literature andcontent area texts.

Early Reading Intervention: Thiscourse is intended to work with studentswho are at-risk for not learning to read orwho have already developed reading dis-abilities. The intervention strategies pre-sented build on the research and field tests


of reading disability specialists who devel-oped programs for intensive teaching ofphonemic awareness and phonics. Alongwith the research translation, the coursecontains a three-step readiness and five-step beginning reading intervention forwork with small groups of students. Inaddition, there are suggestions for activitiesto use to implement the steps. This courseis intended to supplement an ongoingreading curriculum and does not take theplace of the Beginning Reading Instructionstrand.

AFT Educational IssuesPolicy Brief

Reading Excellence Grants; 5 pages(April 1999) Single copy free. Also availableon the Internet: http://www.all.org/edissues/policybriefs

Building on the Best, Learningfrom VIThat Wooks: ResearchReviews of PromisingEducational ProgramsThis series provides background informa-tion about research-based programs that,when properly implemented, have a trackrecord of raising student achievement sig-nificantlyparticularly for at-risk students.Currently available:

Six Promising Schoolwide ReformPrograms; 28 pages (July 1998)

Seven Promising Reading and EnglishLanguage Arts Programs; 32 pages(Jan. 1998)

Five Promising Remedial ReadingIntervention Programs; (June 1999)

Single copy fi-ee. Also available on theInternet: http://www.e.org/edissues/rsa/guide/promising.htm

Learning To Read,Reading lb LearnThis booklet, co-published with the U.S.Department of Education and the NationalCenter To Improve the Tools of Educators,offers a wealth of research-based informa-tion about the skills children need to be-come competent readers and the strategiesthat can help them. Included are: research-synthesized principles on learning to read;tips for teachers; tips for parents; namesand addresses of organizations and expertswilling to provide technical assistance; abibliography; and an extensive resourceguide. 54 pages. Item no. 178. Single copy $5;$3 each forfive or more. (July 1997)

Every Child Reading:An Action PlanThe Learning First Alliance, a coalition of12 national education organizations com-mitted to improving student learning inour public schools, sponsored this actionpaper on reform of reading instruction.The paper outlines research-based practicesfor achieving the goal of reading success forall children and presents an action plan thatparents, teachers, administrators, policymakers, and other stakeholders can imple-ment to begin an effective and comprehen-sive reform of reading instruction. The

plan addresses three critical areas foraction: professional development for teach-ers; early childhood and community out-reach; and research, development, andmaterials. 28 pages. Item no. 180. Single copy$3; $2 each for five or more. Also available onthe Internet: http://www.learningfirst.org/publications.html (June 1998)

Helping Your ChildLearn lb ReadThis booklet, co-published with the U.S.Department of Education, is ideal for dis-tributing at parent-teacher conferences,open houses, back-to-school nights, andother events that attract lots of parents.This volume contains a collection of simpleactivities parents can use at home to stimu-late their children's interest in reading andlanguage. 58 pages. Item no. 350. Single copy$1; 65 cents each for 10 or more, with furtherdiscounts available to affiliates ordering inbulk. (Dec. 1994)

lbaching Reading IsRocket Science: Mat Expertlbachers of Reading ShouldKnow and Be AbleTo DoThanks to new scientific researchplus along-awaited scientific and political con-sensus around reading researchtheknowledge exists to teach all but a handfulof severely disabled children to read well.This report discusses the current state ofteacher preparation in reading. It reviewsthe reading research and describes theknowledge base that is essential for teacher


candidates and practicing teachers to mas-ter if they are to be successful in teachingall children to read well. Finally, the reportmakes recommendations for improving thesystem of teacher education and profes-sional development. 32 pages. Item no. 372.$5 each. (June 1999)

Learning to Read:Schooling's First MissionThe summer 1995 edition of AFT'saward-winning journal, American Educator,

r"To order AFT materials, make check payable to American Fedeation of Teachersand send to:AFT Order Department555 New Jersey Avenue, N.W.Washington, DC 20001

Item no. Name Quantity Cost


focuses on the large body of research onhow to best teach reading to students andhow much of the knowledge is not makingits way into the classroom. Articles include"Resolving the 'Great Debate," by MarilynJ. Adams and Maggie Bruck; "The Role ofDecoding in Learning To Read," by IsabelL. Beck and Connie Juel; and "TheMissing Foundation in TeacherEducation," by Louisa Cook Moats. 26pages. Single copy free; multiple copies subjectto availablity. Fax request to 202/879-4534.

The Unique Power of Readingand How To Unleash ItThe summer 1998 edition of AFT'saward-winning journal, American Educator,is dedicated entirely to reading and focuseson bridging the gap between research andpractice. Articles include "What ReadingDoes for the Mind," by Anne E. Cunning-ham and Keith E. Stanovich; "The ElusivePhoneme," by Marilyn Jager Adams, Bar-bara R. Foorman, Ingvar Lundberg, andTerri Beeler; "Catch Them before TheyFall," by Joseph K. Torgesen; "TeachingDecoding," by Louisa C. Moats; "Gettingat the Meaning," by Isabel Beck, MargaretG. McKeown, Rebecca L. Hamilton, andLinda Kucan; and "Another Chance," byJane Fell Greene. 96 pages. Single copy free;multiple copies subject to availablity. Faxrequest to 202/879-4534.

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